The Trees
The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.
Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too.
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.
Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.
- Philip Larkin
8 Comments:
Beautiful.
I spent about half an hour searching Google after reading your post, trying to figure out why the name "Philip Larkin" sounded so familiar and what work(s) of his i had read before. Turns out it was the poem, "A Study of Reading Habits," which brought back memories of AP English class during senior year of high school. I like the one entitled "Mother, Summer, I," which I found here. Actually, I like quite a few of them. Thanks for the reminder.
Assalamualaikum, sister,
Thank you for that link. I hadn't read Modesties and a few of the others before. Beautiful.
Larkin, though an epitome of the surly egg-headed librarian, was one of the major poets of the last century and very widely-read for his accessible verse. A lot of his poems are cynical and depressing but some of them have a beautiful elegiac quality to them. Do read An Arundel Tomb and Maiden Name if you get the chance. I don't know how to post links in the comments box but they are available here. (http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/index_poet_L.html)
nice poem. reminded me of this ayah for some reason.
"And among His Signs in this: thou seest the earth barren and desolate; but when We send down rain to it, it is stirred to life and yields increase. Truly, He Who gives life to the (dead) earth can surely give life to (men) who are dead. For He has power over all things." (41:39)
Assalamualaikum, sister,
Jazak Allah for posting that ayah. Truly, from Allah we come and to Him we will return.
By the way, should that be "And among His signs is this . . ."
wa iyyakum and yeah.. is not in. =) sorry.
waitaminute. i coulda sworn there was some other convoluted bizarro entry here which i could not attend to but wanted to comment on later (i.e. now) but it has mysteriously disappeared. . .
*stroke chin*
*smokes pipe*
*gets out magnifying glass*
Yeah, it was so convoluted even I couldn't understand it. So I got rid of it, with the lead pipe in the kitchen, with Professor Plum watching.
Post a Comment
<< Home